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Pebble will pay you to design 'smart straps' for its new watch

Unlike many Android Wear watches and Apple's Watch, Pebble Time -- which smashed every Kickstarter record out there -- isn't equipped with a heart-rate monitor and other sensors. The company said that "rather than trying to shove every sensor and doohickey" into the $179 device, it would instead let developers add them via its "smart strap" option. To aid them in that endeavor, Pebble has kicked in $1 million to back the best smart strap related projects. To give you an idea of what's out there, it has revealed a couple of the most interesting concepts so far.

First up is the modular Xadow smartstrap from developer Seeed Studio. The company has developed a Pebble Time connector that's compatible with its 20-odd Arduino-compatible Xadow modules. Those include an NFC sensor, heart-rate monitor and GPS modules. Pebble added that the new connector will also make it easier for other developers to prototype Pebble Time accessories.

The other featured smartstrap idea is from Spark.io. Though just a rough prototype at the moment, it's a "cellular development kit" that would allow your Pebble to operate as a watch phone and connect directly to a mobile network. Pebble said it would use its "best judgement" to figure out how to distribute funds to projects, but the two above certainly demonstrate a wide range of possible ideas. To get in on the action, you can tweet a message to the company (@pebble) or send an email to devsupport@getpebble.com. Pebble's banked nearly $20 million and counting on Kickstarter, so why not help them spend some of it?